Maybe this is too early to ask this question but does anyone know if the Blackberry Soft Shell will alow the 9850 to fit in the cradle without removing the shell?

I don't know for sure but the design of the newer cradles seems to be a lot more narrow than previous ones; I know the 9930 does not fit ins its cradle with the soft shell case, and this seems to be a similar scenario...I could be wrong though.

There were some additional pics in the post above. I haven't owned one of the pods but the pics of the pod with the torch show no clearance so not sure that it would even slide in much less hit the microUSB contact. No pics available of the pod from BB.com to show how long the microusb contact is either.